Facebook Bings in your friends

Facebook has teamed up with Microsoft (and stuck the boot in to Google at the same time) by announcing that the giant social network will become integrated within Bing.

Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at Microsoft's HQ in the heart of Silicon Valley to announce the tie-up, describing Microsoft as "the underdog" and stating that the company was a "good ally" and a "good partner" to Facebook.

The move means that when searching within Bing you'll get Facebook related results, such as links to associated Facebook people (friends and friends of friends) when you type names, or Facebook recommendations when searching for a movie, restaurant, venue and the like.

Facebook's Bret Taylor described the service, via the Facebook blog:

"Today, we're partnering with Bing to give you a way to bring your friends' recommendations to online search. Your friends have liked lots of things all over the web, and now instead of stumbling across a new movie or having to look at a friend's profile to see which restaurants they like, we're bringing everything together in one place.

"When you search for something on Bing or in web results on Facebook (powered by Bing), you'll be able to see your friends' faces next to web pages they've liked. So, you can lean on friends to figure out the best websites for your search".

The service is rolling out to the US over the next few weeks, so hopefully we'll see some Bing action this side of the pond before Christmas.